The Project
by cuddleychangedbee
Summary: When Lily and Sirius work together on a Muggle Studies project, little do they know the trouble in store for the unlikely duo... ON HIATUS
1. The Promise

**Disclaimer -** _Anything you recognize is JK's yada, yada, yada..._

Chapter 1 –The Promise

"Oi, Evans".

16 year old Lily Evans looked up from her seat by the common room fire with a sigh. She knew that voice only too well, that voice belonged to, in her opinion, the second most egotistical arsehole you could meet, the first being James Potter.

"What now Black, can't you see I'm busy?"

"Since when has staring into the fire been known as 'busy' huh?"

"Since now… What do you want anyways?" Sirius fidgeted, he hated to have to do this, but if he didn't boost his grades he would be kicked off the Quidditch team. _(AN - I know he's supposed to be smart, but for the sake of this fanfic he's dumb k?)_

"Umm, well the thing is, I was wondering… you come from a muggle family right?" Lily stared up at him, amazed, she knew the boy was slightly stupid but come on, Potter and Black had saved her countless times already this year from being called a mudblood by the Slytherins (not that she needed any help of course) and he'd only JUST realized she was a muggleborn?

"Duh! Your point?"

"So you'd know a lot about muggle stuff then." Lily just rolled her eyes,

"No Black I've lived in a muggle home for 16 years and I don't even know how to use a television" she muttered sarcastically.

"A tele-what?"

"A teleVISION, it doesn't matter… why do you care anyway?"

"Well you see, I was kind of wondering, seeing as you know all about muggle stuff, if you'd gimme a hand in Muggle Studies" Lily blinked in amazement ,

"The great Sirius Black asking ME for help?" Sirius smirked

"Awww Lillers I always knew you loved me, seeing as I am, and I can quote 'the GREAT Sirius Black' after all" Lily gritted her teeth and chose to ignore that comment, seeing as she was becoming dangerously close to ripping his head from his shoulders.

"Look Black, don't mess me around, you want me to tutor you or something?"

"Gahh, no, no tutoring, anything but the tutoring!" Sure he needed her help, but he wasn't going allow himself to get tutored by EVANS, she'd make him actually do WORK (gasp!) He still couldn't understand why his mate Prongs liked her so much, she was pure evil!

By now Lily's patience was starting to wear thin, "If you don't want tutoring then what do you want, 'cause I REFUSE to do Professor Haden's essay for you!"

"No, not that, I'll get Moony to do it later... We've got that project thingy coming up next week and I wanted to know if you'd be my partner, so I can actually pass this time" Lily sighed, she knew Black well enough by now to know that he'd irritate and annoy her until she agreed. In fact as she glanced up at him now she struggled not to laugh as she saw Sirius' impression of 'puppy-dog eyes', though on him, he just looked cross-eyed.

"Okay, if you promise to leave me in peace for the remainder of the night I'll work with you on the project" she agreed.

"Cheers Evans, I solemnly swear that I, Sirius Black, will not pester you, Lily Evans, for the rest of this evening" and with that, he bounded away. No doubt to pull some prank on a random Slytherin, she grumbled to herself as she turned back to the warmth of the common-room fire, "Oh gods, what have I let myself into?"

_Hey peeps, yh, sozzy bout the Marauders Map reference but I couldn't resist lol!_

_PS - This is my first ever fanfiction so feedback would be good, but please no flamers, I'm too young to die..._


	2. Getting Down to Business

**Disclaimer -** _Anything you recognize is JK's yada, yada, yada..._

_LO Every1! _

_First off I'm SOOOOOOO sorry I haven't updated in AGES, u see it's really not my fault – the stupid nitwits doing my road-works decided to sever my internet cable, and you can just guess how happy I was about that (note the sarcasm) but I finally managed to bug the council into fixing it… yippee!_

_Secondly I'd like to thank my reviewers for their encouraging responses, again I would have replied to them sooner but you can blame my shovel-happy maintenance men for that._

_So here goes…_

_Pennies from Heaven – Thank you SO much for your support. I felt really bad about straying from the books, but in all honesty it was less a use of 'creative license' than forgetting the little details from the Marauders' era and making them up, lolz. XxX_

_Bugbug – I hope that I keep it going as well, but I've read the summer and I thought it was brilliant and I know that you've ended it and all but you could do so much more with it like exploring all these new relationships… I'll make a deal with you, I'll try to continue mine if you try to keep yours going too. Comprendez? XxX _

_rockpaperscissor – Thanx, I'll try to make it good, bit I'm not that great a writer, this is my first fic. Lemme tell u an ickle secret… I'm wondering about what's going to happen as much as you are… I'm making it all up as I go along, I have absolutely know idea where it's going, lol. XxX _

_Lavender Mansworth – Damn, you've foiled my plan to take over the world by writing LilyPeter fanfics, lol! No, I can promise you that that will NEVER happen. Awww, I love your perception of Sirius, I don't want to make him too sweet and innocent but I don't want him as an obnoxious bastard either, he's just….misunderstood. So ta-ta for now and pip pip to you too, O how very British lolz! BexXxX_

Chapter 2 – Getting Down to Business

The morning after their 'encounter' Lily was relieved to find that Sirius had stayed true to his word and not pranked her during the night. However, after witnessing Black slip crushed Animal Crackers into the food of the 5th year Slytherins she soon lost her new found cordiality towards him as she was pounced upon by Lucius Malfoy, who was roaring like a tiger.

As the week progressed the professors piled more and more homework and revision on the 5th years, leaving Lily little time to wonder about the Muggle Studies project and if Black really would be her partner or if he was just mucking her around. So she never gave another thought about her deal with Black and the project until that very lesson when Professor Haden announced it.

"Now class, this lesson we will begin our annual project and this year we will be studying muggle businesses and how they work. I know you've all been looking forward to this…"

The class all groaned, Professor Haden wouldn't know enthusiasm if it hit him in the face; out of the corner of her eye Lily could see Sirius on the other side of the room, banging his head on his desk in boredom and despair. She smirked to herself; this was going to be easy.

"…. And while the school doesn't normally do this sort of thing, I've Professor McGonagall's permission to allow this years OWL class to get some practical experience of muggle businesses. For this project you and your partners will form your own small businesses. You will need to create company names, slogans, advertising campaigns and will need to decide upon other plans of action from research; the aim of the project is to attract as many student customers as possible, from ALL years."

From the other side of the class Sirius sat bolt upright in his seat. Did he just hear right? Doing business with students meant swindling money from them, more money meant more Zonko's products, and more Zonko's products meant more ammo for pranks. Oh yeah, life was sweet. He figured he better check though, if he was disqualified from the project he'd be off the Quidditch team.

"Professor, seeing as we're supposed to act like it's a real business and all, will we be funding the project ourselves, and will we receive any profits?"

"Good point Mr. Black though I'd appreciate it if you didn't shout out next time, eh? Each pair will be given 10 galleons at the start of the project to cover basic costs, at the end of the project you will be expected to pay that back from any money you receive from your business; you are free to keep any profits. However, please bear in mind that if your company goes bankrupt, you will be expected to cover the costs from your own pocket. Any other questions?"

Lily's hand shot into the air "Umm professor, how long will this project last?"

"Two weeks Miss. Evans, now if there's nothing else I will let you get started"

"Oh Mr. H, one last thing, are we allowed to do our projects on AYTHING we choose?"

Lily turned in her seat when she heard the voice of James Potter ring out through the class. She rolled her eyes when she saw him, leaning back on his chair with his feet propped up on the table. Gosh he had no respect for school property, she thought, and what was with that whole Mr. H thing anyway?

At that moment Potter saw her scowl and winked flirtatiously, Lily blushed, realizing she'd been caught staring, and turned back to face the front.

"Anything LEGAL Mr. Potter, anything legal"

"Damn Prongs, looks like they've foiled your plot to open a strip show in Gryffindor Common Room" she heard Remus Lupin mutter from somewhere at the back, once again she rolled her eyes at the assorted sniggers that rippled through the class.

"And there was me thinking he was the quiet one." She mumbled to herself as the class began to move to sit with their respective partners.

"Ahh, but Evans, it's the quiet ones you've got to watch out for" came Sirius' voice from directly above her. She looked up in fright to see Black grinning down at her like a madman.

"Bloody heck Black do you have to do that? Creeping up on me all the time"

"I can assure you Miss. Evans that there was no creeping involved. I was simply coming over to you so we can start the project." Sirius beamed, he had a few ideas of his own about this project, at first he figured he could wing it and let Evans do all the work but if there was any money to be made, it was going to be made by him. Plus he would have fun cheating the first years, selling them products that had a few 'side affects' like turning their hair blue – hehe this project was going to rock!

_I know these first few chappies are a bit slow but after this next 1 I promise the plot will pick up._

_Contact me with any ideas as to what Lily and Sirius' business should be. (Or even Remus and James' for that matter)_

_You know what 2 do… _

_R_

_E_

_V_

_I_

_E_

_W_


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